Trains 1830 to 1900

Railways meant the end for canals
and coaches. Railways were to transform
Britain in the nineteenth century. Wagons pulled along on tracks had existed for
some while, but these wagons had been pulled by horses. Advances in railways
took place throughout the nineteenth century but there are a number of key dates
in the history of railways :

1804 : Richard Trevithick built a
steam locomotive for his iron works at Penydarren in Wales. It was essentially
built for a bet but it did manage to pull ten tonnes of iron. However, like most
first models, it was highly unreliable. What he did, encouraged others to
improve on his design.

1811 : John Blenkinsop invented a
steam engine which had cogs on one of its wheels. These gripped an extra rail
laid down on the normal rail line and gave his engine more grip.

1813 : The "Puffing Billy"
was built by William Hedley to pull coal wagons at the Wylam Colliery in
Northumberland. It was so reliable that it was used for fifty years.

A man called George Stephenson lived
in Wylam. His father looked after the pumping engine at the colliery. By the
time George was fifteen, he was working on the same engine as his father. George
Stephenson was fascinated by steam engines and in 1821 he was made engineer for
the colliery. The owners of the colliery decided to build a rail line from
Stockton to Darlington so that they could move their coal to a large market with
more ease. Stephenson was given to job of building this line.

1825 : the Stockton to Darlington rail
line was opened. Two locomotives were used (the "Experiment" and
"No 1") and they could pull 21 coal wagons 25 miles at 8 miles per
hour. This was unheard of at the time and soon the line was in profit.
Passengers were soon carried but steam trains did not operate on the line for
passengers until 1833. In many senses, 1825 is seen as the start of the Age of
the Railways.

The opening of the Stockton to
Darlington railway

1826 : George Stephenson was given a
much bigger task - to build a railway between Manchester and Liverpool.
However, the company financing the scheme was not convinced that steam trains
would worked properly on this rail line. They organised a competition to find
out what train and which type of train would be best for their line. The
competition was to be held at Rainhill near Liverpool.

1829 : the Rainhill Trials took place.
The winning train was the legendary "Rocket" built by George
Stephenson. He won £500. The "Rocket" travelled at 46 kph - about 30
mph.

1830 : the Liverpool to Manchester
railway opened

The success of Stephenson's train caught the
public's imagination and so-called "Railway Mania" took place.
Railways were seen as a way of earning a fortune. Between 1825 and 1835,
Parliament agreed to the building of 54 new rail lines. From 1836 to 1837, 39
new lines were agreed to. By 1900, Britain had 22,000 miles of rail track.

Railways greatly helped industry. But not
everybody approved of them. The Duke of Wellington - famed for leading Britain
to victory at the Battle of Waterloo - feared that trains might encourage the
poor and undesirables in society to come to London and that any trains coming
from places such as Bath and Bristol had to pass near to Eton School and that
the pupils there might be disturbed !! Some farmers believed that trains could
cause cows to produce stale milk but trains did allow farmers to get their
products to market quicker and this was very important to farmers producing
perishable goods.

1838 : Robert Stephenson, the son of
George, completed the London to Birmingham rail line.

1841 : Isambard Kingdom Brunel
completed his London to Bristol line - the Great Western Railway. This was such
a stunning achievement that people used the rail line's initials (GWR) to call
it "God's Wonderful Railway")

How did railways change society ?

rail travel, despite the investment made
into making rail lines, was 50% cheaper than coach
travel.

it was also a lot quicker and opened up
Britain in a way that coach travel
could not do. Seaside fishing villages suddenly became fashionable and
popular as day trips to the coast became common.

even the poor could afford rail travel as
three different classes of travel existed - third class meant travelling in
open topped carriages but the price was such that the less well off in
society could use trains.

towns and cities had cheaper food as
farmers could get their perishable products to market quicker and cheaper.
Inland towns could now get fresh fish !!

Many thousands of miles of rail were built
and they transformed Britain. The heavy work of building was done by men who
became known as navvies.